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Tales from the Haunted Mansion: Volume I: The Fearsome Foursome
Tales from the Haunted Mansion: Volume I: The Fearsome Foursome is the first in a collection of short stories told by the Haunted Mansion's librarian, Amicus Arcane (who is credited as the author) and "transcribed" by John Esposito, with illustrations by Kelley Jones. The book tells the ghoulish tales of the Fearsome Foursome, a group of middle-school kids who love anything and everything spooky and scary. Summary Tim, Willa, Noah and Steve may all have different backgrounds, but they all share a common love of the macabre. Together they form a club known as the Fearsome Foursome, dedicated to not just sharing eerie stories they'd already heard, but inventing their own to frighten each other. However, when a freak thunderstorm unexpectedly destroys their clubhouse, they discover odd invitations in the ruins, inviting them to the abandoned mansion on the edge of town. Their journey through the dilapidated halls of the manor eventually leads to the library and its resident librarian, Amicus Arcane, who claims to have the most frightening stories of all... since each story is about one of Foursome: * In "Lonegan's Glove," Tim's love of baseball and lack of ability to play the game do not correlate, but the discovery of an antique baseball mitt at a flea market begins to turn things around for him. The glove, a relic of the late Red Devils player Lefty Lonegan, seems to infuse Tim with the skill he needs to finally get off the bench and onto the baseball diamond. Unfortunately for Tim, supernatural forces are at work, and it seems that Lefty wants his glove back... * In "Witch-Bone," Willa is having an awful day following the passing of her beloved guinea pig, Chubs. To get her mind off the morning's burial, she invites a few friends to a sleep-out in a tent in her backyard, where one of them brings along a witch-bone, said to grant the wish of whoever breaks in. Willa succeeds, making a wish based on the day's earlier tragedy. But one must always be careful what they wish for... * In "Sea Creatures," Noah is stuck spending the summer cleaning his uncaring stepfather's grungy swimming pool. When he finds an add for freeze-dried "Monsters from the Deep" in one of his dad's old horror comics, Noah decides to get a little bit of revenge on his stepdad by growing them in pool. Little does Noah suspect just how much his mail-in creatures will grow when he ignores the warning to not immerse them in salt water, which his stepdad insists the pool be filled with... * In "The Dare," Steve is willing to take on any challenge and face any dare to maintain his popularity and image, but new kid Roland Price is even more fearless and is threatening Steve's position as the King of Dares. When Steve learns that Rolly's one weakness is claustrophobia, he gives Rolly the ultimate dare: to spend an hour sealed in a coffin. To his surprise, Rolly accepts. And when something goes horribly wrong during the dare, Steve will have to act fast to prevent something gruesome from happening... However, the real chills come later, as Amicus gives the Foursome one final frightening revelation about the mansion... and themselves. Trivia * In "Lonegan's Glove," the date given for the big All-Star game and the day Lefty died is July 17th, 1955 - the day Disneyland opened. * Many little nods and references to Imagineers that worked on the attraction litter the stories, including Houngan Atencio (X. Atencio), Rolly Price and Louis Crump (Rolly Crump), and the Davis Family Funeral Home (Marc and Alice Davis). Category:Books